Mysterious, Decadent, Spooky or Hidden DC, Part One

An idea I had a while ago was a series of photo essays with a common theme...the strange, mysterious, spooky, decadent, bizarre, hidden parts of DC and the surrounding area. So, I decided to get started in Dumbarton Oaks.

Dumbarton Oaks, for the uninitiated, is a large estate in DC's Georgetown neighborhood. It was first established in 1702 as "Rock of Dumbarton" but was in rundown condition when purchased by Mildred and Robert Bliss in 1920. Robert was a diplomat; Mildred was an heiress to the Fletcher's Castoria fortune. They hired landscape architect Beatrix Farrand (niece of Edith Wharton) to design the stunning gardens, and used the house for their collection of Byzantine art. In 1940, they ended up donating the house and most of the grounds to Harvard, which now maintains the museum and library and research center, and another portion of the grounds to the US Park Service.

So naturally, there's lots of history here. In 1944, it was the host to the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, that laid the groundwork of the United Nations. And in 1938, Robert Bliss commissioned Igor Stravinsky to write a piece for the couple's 30th anniversary; the resulting work, Stravinsky's Concerto in E-flat, is widely known as the "Dumbarton Oaks Concerto."

So with all that, and all the guests that one can imagine visiting in its heyday, it's easy to imagine all sorts of intrigue, both personal and political. It's the sort of place that SHOULD be haunted, but off the cuff I have no idea if there are any ghost stories associated with the place. Still, for those in the District, it's a great place to go visit and imagine as the setting for some sort of tale, either one of those manor-house-style mysteries, or an M. R. Jamesian ghost story.

So, without further ado...

The main house, built in 1800. Annoyingly, admission to the gardens does not get you into the house and museum. Still, the gardens will take up a few hours anyway...


Inside the house's orangery, with the immense creeping fig that crawls over everything and dates from the 1860s. You don't want to stand still too long, as it may grab you.


The Star Garden, which was basically intended to be an outdoor dining room for the family. Lose the table and chairs and you can almost imagine black magic ceremonies going on here. In the paving there's a Chaucer quote: "Oh thou maker of the whele that bereth the sterres and tornest the hevene with a ravisshing sweigh."

There's a ton of astronomical/astrological symbolism embedded in the paving...


And in the garden's fountain...


The Urn Terrace, a few steps down, has this lovely monstrosity that looks like it was designed by Edward Gorey.


Down a flight of steps from the Urn Terrace is the jaw-dropping Rose Garden. When I was snapping photos, there was so much in bloom...






At one end, there's this bench with the Bliss family motto, Quod Severis Metes, meaning You Shall Reap What You Sow.


This bizarre fountain cools the Arbor Terrace area.


Dubbed the "Lover's Lane Pool," this is actually the estate's Garden of Histrion...that is, a private outdoor theatre. How decadent can you get? Pretty decadent...


This area is called "Mélisande's Allée" after the Debussy opera, based on the Maeterlinck play.


And this arbor walk seems like a great place for a whispered conversation.


An area known as "The Ellipse" has this lovely fountain, imported from Provence.


The strangest garden was the Pebble Court, a dry garden featuring what is basically a mosaic on a grand scale.

It also has a lovely fountain:

...and a wall of these carved wavelets...


My favorite part is this gorgeous fountain, located in a quiet corner of the garden, near the swimming pool.


But there's tons of random things to stumble on as you wander around...






And all sorts of intriguing paths...



And if you're not inclined toward mystery or ghosts or anything like that...there's corners of the garden, and nearby Dumbarton Oaks Park, that are like something out of a fairy tale...







Dumbarton Oaks, and Dumbarton Park, are gorgeous places to wander in, and definitely off the beaten DC tourist track. If you're in town this summer, set aside an afternoon to go visit. Dumbarton Oaks charges $8 admission and is open 2 pm to 6 pm from 3/15 to 10/31; other times of the year it's open 2-5 and admission is free. They're closed Mondays, federal holidays, and in bad weather. Dumbarton Park is open dawn to dusk, with no admission. They're great places to wander and let your imagination go wild. And since they're in the middle of Georgetown, it's easy to find a place for a drink or a snack afterwards.

There'll be more on the way in future weeks...so stay tuned.

WHITE CORRIDOR by Christopher Fowler

The fifth novel in Fowler's Bryant & May series is still part of the D&C Required Reading list...but only because it's part of the series. On its own, it's a decent mystery novel, but lacking in the gothic grotesquerie that makes the previous books so much fun.

WHITE CORRIDOR begins with the employees of the Peculiar Crimes Unit on a forced vacation while their computer systems are updated. Bryant and May head off to Devon for a spiritualists' convention. However, a freak blizzard arises that traps them in a string of traffic on a snowbound road.

Now we have two mysteries arise. In London, a coroner is found dead in an autopsy room that's locked from the inside. And in Devon, Madeline, a fellow motorist trapped by the snow turns out to be a woman who fled England to escape an abusive husband, only to get entangled with a shady man who's also after her now that she's returned.

And also, a higher-up in the Home Office quickly arranges a visit from a cranky minor royal, in hopes of having the unit shut down once and for all.

So the pressure is on to solve the mystery of the dead coroner quickly. Bryant & May consult with their colleagues via cell phone, while assisting the panicked Madeline.

So really, not a bad set-up at all, but Fowler's obsessions with London's crumbling landscape and bizarre history, one of the fun parts of the series that set it apart, are largely absent from this book. There's a lot of great characterization, though, which keeps things moving. In fact, most of what gothicism there is in WHITE CORRIDOR is in the characters and their personalities, rather than their surroundings.

It's a good book, but it's just not up to the standards of the rest. I was led to suspect it's basically a place-holder between TEN SECOND STAIRCASE and the next book, THE VICTORIA VANISHES. When I get around to reading TVV, I'll let you know.

New Logo!

D&C is into its second year, so I felt it was time for a real banner up there, rather than just text. In addition to expanding my horizons as a writer, I've also been expanding my horizons as a photographer (obviously!), so I've got a lot of photos stockpiled on my hard drive. Experimenting with Picasa, I saw I could put some text in, and thought....hey! I can do a logo for the blog! So I found a photo I took of the cemetery at the Ephrata Cloister in Ephrata, PA, this past Christmas, and dragged up one of the jillion fonts I've downloaded off the aethernet, and here's the end result.

I may fine-tune this or change it as time passes, and maybe add some more photos here and there in permanent places (I have one that would be great for just above the links), so stay tuned.

And if you like it, hate it, or have suggestions, please chime in!

Adventures & Excursions

It's been a busy couple of weeks, partly with work and partly trying to fit in all the fun stuff I've wanted to do.

I've promised music reviews, and so far I haven't done any, but let me put in a plug for a podcast, The Clockwork Cabaret. It's an aethernet version of a weekly radio show from North Carolina dedicated to steampunk music. Steampunk music? Yeah, I was suspicious at first, but the first episode I listened to had three artists that I already liked, so I figured I'd hang out and listen to more. And, well, I totally like it. I've always been intrigued by the Steampunk aesthetic, and the more I find out about it, the more intrigued I am. Of course, my vision of D&C has a similar aesthetic, although I'd want a more spooky slant to it. Screampunk, maybe? Worth looking into and thinking about.

There's been a remark made about a Dust & Corruption t-shirt, but I wouldn't have a clue about a design. Anyone have input or ideas?

So, let's see, what have I been up to lately? One night, I went to the last regular performance of the Weirdo Show at the Palace of Wonders, a great variety/vaudeville show. I won a beer-chugging contest and later got to mash a gal's face into a pile of broken glass. In other words, it was a typical night out for me. Anyway, here's a few memories...


Belladonna entrances the crowd with her bellydancing prowess.



Magician Erich Henning has some fun with bubbles.



Professor Sprocket tightens a loose screw.



Fire dancers Malibu and Surprise open their act.



Mab Just Mab goes walkin' on broken glass.



Belladonna balances.



Malibu retakes the stage for a scorchin' hot number.


And then I spent a day tooling around southern Maryland, a region that's always full of surprises and interesting byways.


An osprey lands on its nest at Piney Point.



The lighthouse at Piney Point. You can almost imagine the stormclouds building and the menacing music playing...



Empty, decrepit house on St. George's Island. An obvious setting for whatever hauntings you wish.



Moll Dyer's rock, on the grounds of the Leonardtown Historical Society. Moll Dyer was a purported witch who lived in a shack near Leonardtown in the late 1600s; according to the story, she was driven from her home on a frigid winter night by locals who wanted her gone from the town. They burned her home and she was found the next morning, frozen and dead, one hand raised as in prayer and the other firmly on the rock that now bears her name. Supposedly, though, many calamities befell the community after that, and it was widely believed that she cursed the town with her dying breath. In the 1970s, the rock was taken from the local woods and positioned on the grounds of the historical society. These days, there are tales of ghostly figures in the woods and odd sensations experienced around the rock.



My hand, in what's supposed to be the imprint of Moll Dyer's hand. I'm not sure if that's a real imprint of some sort, a fluke of nature, or the result of people over the years trying to find Moll Dyer's imprints and leaving an imprint of their own. Reportedly cameras regularly malfunction at the site, and people experience odd sensations. But nothing of the sort happened for me.



Ruined chimney, Purse State Park.



Afternoon light over the Potomac, Purse State Park.


It was a great afternoon's ramble, as you can tell. Lots of great sights and good weather. I grabbed a pine cone and some shells from the beach at Piney Point in addition to all my photos. I'll be going down that way again, maybe to investigate the supposedly haunted Point Lookout State Park, or hit St. Clement's Island, the first landing of European colonists in Maryland. Lots of old churches, plantation houses, and historic towns to nose about in. In other words, great territory for those of the Dust & Corruption persuasion. I'm sure there's places my readers like to ramble that get their imaginations going....anyone care to share?

Till next time...I'm gearing up for another sinister summer...